February 28, 2013

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The night before Robert Parker released his updated scores on the 2010 vintage tasted from bottle, the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux - in conjunction with Watson's Wines - hosted a tasting of the same vintage. 2010 was the younger of the twin blockbuster vintages of 2009/10, and en primeur prices for the vintage undoubtedly shattered some records. I haven't had the pleasure of tasting many wines from this vintage, so I was really looking forward to this event. In retrospect, I shouldn't have been surprised by how quickly tickets to this event sold out. I actually had to pull some strings (thanks to the Specialist) to get myself a precious ticket…

I actually arrived a few minutes before the official starting time of 6pm, and there was already a big crowd waiting to get in. I guess everyone wanted to come early and make sure they don't miss anything!

I had a wine dinner to go to after the tasting, so I was rushing to taste as many of these wines as I could within a limited time. That means I didn't really have time to delve deep into each wine, but rather just scratching the surface of each. I went through 31 wines in about 1½ hours, which I thought wasn't bad…

2010 Lascombes - cedar, wood, a hint of smoke, prunes.

2010 Giscours - more fragrant and open, nose of saddle, smoke, earth, and almost floral. Nice.

2010 Brane-Cantenac - nose was open, more acidity here, with dried herbs and fragrant on the edges. Henri Lurton was here again.

For reds I liked Pichon-Lalande, Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Léoville Barton, Clinet and Troplong Mondot. Whites I liked Latour-Martillac, Malartic-Lagravière and Pape Clément best. For sweet wines it had to be Guiraud, Coutet and Climens.

Needless to say I was already pretty buzzed when I went off to dinner, to drink more wine!